Set in a walled enclave, the amazing 26,500-square-foot lush estate, the priciest home listed in the Chicago area, has been listed and relisted since 2009 for between $32 and 28 million without going to ‘the highest bidder’, perhaps on account of the country’s economic crisis.
The luxury home was designed by Landry Design Group and meant as a replica of Chateau Villandry in Loire Valley, France. Owners Sherwin and Deborah Jarol spent nearly five years building the French-inspired chateau. Now the fully furnished dream home, dubbed “Le Grand Rêve”, has again been put up on the market for $21.9 million, despite the estate’s listing agent estimation that its total cost (building and furnishing) was $40 million. Other real estate agents claim that it was “overbuilt, overdone and overpriced.”
The “trophy home of the North Shore”, as was called by its listing agent, boasts twenty-six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a two-story rotunda, a Tiffany stained glass dome, a gift-wrapping room, staff quarters, a double-story heated nine-car garage and a heated driveway. Other amenities include swimming pool, spa complete with massage room and salon, gym with French doors, wine cellar. Special features are Venetian plaster walls and hand-scraped walnut floors.
